Film Reviews

The Ugly Duckling and Me!

• Rating:
• Director: Michael Hegner
• Starring: Aileen Mythen
• Details: France / Germany / UK / Denmark / Ireland / 89mins (G).

The reinvention of the fairy tale is nothing new (re: Shrek), but The Ugly Duckling And Me hones in on one fairy tale in particular - Hans Christian Anderson's The Ugly Duckling. Totally rethinking the set-up, this version sees shifty showman Ratso (Jones), a cross between Del Boy and Steve Buscemi, escape a gang of rats as he tries to make it to a carnival with his only client, the worm Wesley (Paul Tylak). Along they way they come across an egg, which to Ratso's horror, hatches, and the ugliest duck in the world rolls out. Ratso, seeing his chance to make a mint, pretends he's Ugly's (Gregg) father ("What kind of father would I be if I wasn't a mother to my own son") and drags him to carnival to parade 'The Ugliest Duck In The World'. However, with the gangster rats closing in and Ugly growing every day, the journey proves to be more perilous than first thought. The writers (including Irishman Mark Hodkinson) put a lot of hope into Ratso and its success with the audiences will be based on how they will react to him. They shouldn't have anything to worry because they've created a gem of a character and everyone else fades in his shadow. Like Shrek, a lot of the humour comes in the dialogue and Ratso is the king of the quips: "Sometimes you got to give women some privacy ... otherwise they'll talk to you." It's a slick and cute animation, wrapped up with an important message that beauty isn't everything: "Beauty is a passing thing. They waste their lives on hand cream and early nights while guys like you and me have all the fun." It's got a few tuning problems and at times the dialogue could have done with a little finessing, but there's a lot of heart and it tries hard to make adults and kids laugh along to the same jokes. The Ugly Duckling And Me makes one thing clear - you don't need celebrity voices to make a funny kids cartoon.

Review by Gavin Burke